This box set is the first DVD incarnation of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to offer the series’ two-hour pilot along with the rest of the episodes from seasons one and two. (Artisan’s 2001 release of the first season jarringly opened with a “previously on Twin Peaks” announcement—confusing, no doubt, fans expecting the whole story.) This new edition also is noteworthy for its plethora of extras, highlighted by the feature-length, Charles de Lauzirika-produced “Secrets From Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks.” Split into four parts, including one that appropriately covers the show’s memorable music, this take-no-prisoners documentary is refreshingly candid, especially when the various talking heads (Lynch is not among them) address the misguided second season. One producer notes that revealing Laura Palmer’s killer was the death knell of the show. “The whole second season pretty much sucked,” adds actress Kimmy Robertson. Lynch is present for “A Slice of Lynch,” leading a friendly roundtable recollection of the show with actors Kyle MacLachlan and Mädchen Amick. There also are deleted scenes, a video of MacLachlan’s appearance on Saturday Night Live and, most amusingly, Japanese coffee commercials featuring the cast.

Shelf Talk: With its distinctive gold packaging, this Gold Box Edition will draw some serious attention on the shelf. Crack it open and you’ll find 10 discs and a collection of “Greetings From Twin Peaks” postcards. The series has been issued before, so it might be hard to sell to anyone who owns earlier versions, but the inclusion of the pilot will be a substantial selling point to those who consider themselves “Peaks Freaks.” And to have the entire series in one box is tempting, making this gorgeous, shimmery box hard to resist.

David Lynch: Climbing the 'Peaks'The cult-cinema director looks back on his landmark ''Twin Peaks'': How ABC ruined it, why he'd never work in TV again, and what, exactly, Agent Cooper is doing today.By Jeff Jensen (ew.com)

''She's dead...wrapped in plastic...''With these creepy words — intoned by the late Jack Nance — Blue Velvet director David Lynch and producer Mark Frost launched their deeply beloved, greatly irritating, and widely influential cult-classic TV series Twin Peaks in the spring of 1989. It was a smashing success...for a few weeks or so. Initially, the show became an international phenomenon thanks to its engrossing, aggressively marketed ''Who Killed Laura Palmer?'' mystery, quirky-cool hero (Kyle MacLachlan's pie-loving, coffee-swilling FBI agent Dale Cooper), and Lynch's auteur celebrity and distinctive brand of oddball wit, rich imagery, and atmospheric dread. But soon, viewers began tuning out in droves, alienated by the cryptically-plotted murder investigation, a deep dive into what the hell?! mysticism, and the general appearance of aimlessness. Following an erratically scheduled second season, the bizarre boomtown of Twin Peaks went bust in 1991.

Now, after years of delays, due to wrangling over rights to the show's two-hour Lynch-directed pilot (which itself remains one of great artistic achievements in TV history), Paramount is bringing the entire Twin Peaks experience — the pilot, plus the first and second seasons — to DVD. Dubbed Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition (see the EW review), the 10-disc set is loaded with extras, including deleted scenes (a rarity for a Lynch-authorized DVD), the rarely-seen and truly spooky alternate ending to the pilot (created for a feature-film version that was released abroad), cast and writer episodic commentaries, and documentaries tracking the creation of the series and the unique phenomenon it sparked. Once again, Twin Peaks lives — and it's wrapped in plastic, no less. An excited Lynch recently spoke with EW.com about Twin Peaks from Milan, where he was exhibiting a collection of his paintings.

You know this is a dream come true for Peaks freaks, don't you?Well, yeah, it's kind of a dream come true for me, too, because the pilot has never been included with the series [on DVD], and now it is.

When I interviewed you a couple years ago about the history of Twin Peaks, you told me at that time that you love the whole notion of an ongoing, never-ending story, and that's really what you had hoped to achieve with Twin Peaks.A continuing story, right.

Why is that a ''beautiful thing,'' to use one of your favorite expressions?Because you can go deeper and deeper into a world and discover more and more things. A feature film has an ending. A continuing story doesn't. Eventually it could, but it can just go and go and go, and if the ideas keep flowing, it can be pretty thrilling.

In your imagination, is the Twin Peaks story still going?Well, yes and no. Obviously, there is a lot more. And there are clues, not only in the series, but in the feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me [the poorly received 1992 prequel], that indicate something more, but I've never had a chance to go there.

Is there a chance that we could go there again?I don't think so. On the Internet, maybe, but it's a big deal. It's a hungry medium, and it would take 100% focus to go there.

I know ABC asked you and co-creator Mark Frost to wrap up the Laura Palmer murder mystery much sooner than you wanted—About 10 years sooner! [In a previous interview with EW, Lynch revealed that his original plan was to resolve the Laura Palmer murder mystery at the very end of the series. The idea was that the ongoing investigation into Palmer's murder would reveal mysteries within mysteries to be solved, crimes within crimes to bring to justice.]

In your mind, does that tarnish the way you personally feel about the Twin Peaks experience?For sure. Like I was saying before, the question of what happened to Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) was the goose that laid the golden egg. Then ABC asked us to snip the goose's head off, and it killed the goose. And there went everything. It was never meant to be — there was so much more to the mystery....

This DVD has many extras — deleted scenes, commentaries, a conversation with you, Kyle Maclachlan and Madchen Amick (who played Shelly the waitress on the show) about the series. But in general, are you an extras kind of guy? Do you like to put that kind of stuff on your DVDs?I believe that a film or a series stands on its own — I believe in the work the most. On the sidelines, extras can be very good. But it's a tricky business. Extras could possibly taint what's most important. But stories about the show or movie, or some deleted scenes — all of that can be good, okay. The conversation I had with Kyle and Madchen — they put us together in a kind of a Twin Peaks setting, and we had some pie together and talked. It was real nice. The cast of Twin Peaks was sensational. And there I was, after a long time, with Kyle and Madchen, and it was nice to go back in time and talk about things.

Twin Peaks introduced the world to your ''fondness'' for many things, including coffee. Last year, you launched your own line of coffee, David Lynch Signature Cup Coffee. How's the business treating you?It's going good. Every business is tricky. The coffee is very, very good tasting. I drink it every day. I'm looking forward to getting it out into stores. A lot of cinemas are starting to take it, and that's cool — it's becoming like a cinema coffee. And it's fitting, because part of the profits goes to the American Film Institute, which helped put me on the map. So there are ideas in every bean, and great, great taste.

Nice tagline! Twin Peaks is an incredibly influential show, and inspired a lot of the great TV that's on today, including shows like Lost. Do you watch much TV? Have you kept track of what's out there?No, I don't watch TV too much. Except when I travel. I haven't seen Lost.

You tried to return to TV a few years back with a pilot for a drama set in LA. When ABC passed on it, you famously salvaged the pilot and turned it into one of your most acclaimed movies, Mulholland Drive, which earned you an Oscar nomination for directing. Would you ever be tempted to work in TV again?No. I'd go onto the Internet, because Internet is the new TV. [You can find some of Lynch's experiments in digital filmmaking and storytelling at his website, davidlynch.com.]

One last question: did you know that Ray Wise — who played Laura Palmer's demon-possessed father on Twin Peaks — is now playing the devil himself on a show called Reaper?Didn't know that! Ray can play the very, very good side and the very, very bad side of people. I'm glad he's working away — but I hope it doesn't take him down playing the devil.

He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

'Twin Peaks' gets its due at lastDid David Lynch break every rule in the TV book? A DVD set offers fascinating answers.Source: Los Angeles Times

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

FOR a series so widely acknowledged as a television landmark, David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" has received conspicuously shoddy treatment on the home-video front. The eight-episode first season was released in 2001 without the pilot; the second (and final) season arrived on DVD only last spring after extensive delays.

Now, finally, comes the edition fans have long been waiting for: a "definitive gold box" set, out Tuesday, that contains both seasons (all 29 episodes), the two-hour pilot (both the American and European versions) and abundant extras, including deleted scenes and four new documentaries. (All that's missing is "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," the torrid 1992 prequel.)

An unlikely, perhaps unrepeatable phenomenon, "Twin Peaks" went from national sensation to ratings pariah in just over a year. (The final episode aired in June 1991, 14 months after the pilot.) Lynch's singular sensibility made the show an object of instant fan ardor, but for the general public -- and certainly for the network, ABC -- it soon proved alienating. "Twin Peaks," in other words, was a cult item that somehow found a mass audience and almost immediately suffered the consequences.

In its most basic outline, the show is a traditional whodunit, with a horrific central crime -- the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), a homecoming queen whose extracurricular activities were on the seamy side -- and a charmingly eccentric crime-solver, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). But in its every detail, from Cooper's reliance on dream-based Jungian techniques to the decidedly high ratio of local eccentrics in this bucolic Pacific Northwest logging town, "Twin Peaks" is pure and surprisingly unadulterated Lynch.

While the characters and their quirks were strange, it was the less tangible stuff -- the moods and emotions the show stirred -- that in the context of prime time seemed even more unnerving: the panicky surge of hormones that envelops every teenage interaction, the grief-struck delirium of Laura's parents (played with intensity by Ray Wise and Grace Zabriskie), the bottomless terror lurking just beneath everyday banalities.

The point of contention was how quickly to solve the murder. Lynch and his co-creator, Mark Frost, wanted to prolong the mystery, but the network, citing viewer fatigue, grew impatient with the show's slowly developing cosmology and its penchant for offbeat tangents.

And so Lynch solved the case in unforgettable fashion -- in Episode 14, a quarter of the way into Season 2. Laura's father, Leland, possessed by a stringy-haired incarnation of evil known as Bob (Frank Silva), kills his daughter's lookalike cousin, Maddy (also played by Lee), just as he'd killed his own daughter. It's hard to imagine how Lynch got away with such a brutal act on network TV. Like the other episodes Lynch directed himself, this one is a marvel of sustained atmosphere. As Bob takes over Leland, a pall descends on the town. Most of the characters gather at the local tavern, some weeping uncontrollably as a wispy chanteuse (Julee Cruise) croons a disembodied love song.

This episode was the show's high point and also its death knell. Lynch and his team of writers and directors were clearly thrown off balance (and for part of the second season Lynch was also off making his Elvis- and Oz-inflected road movie "Wild at Heart"). After a few lackluster post-revelation episodes, "Twin Peaks" regained its composure, finding a new adversary for Agent Cooper in the form of his vindictive ex-partner, Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh). But by then the series was, commercially speaking, a terminal case -- repeatedly bounced around the schedule by ABC, even stranded at one point in a Saturday-night wasteland.

But even in its last gasp "Twin Peaks" broke the rules. The brilliant finale, a byzantine and often terrifying mood piece as boldly avant-garde as anything Lynch has ever made, is, in its way, a deeply satisfying act of revenge. Having been forced to get to the bottom of his central mystery ahead of schedule, Lynch took his leave from the world of serial television with a defiant nonending, plunging further into his characters' haunted unconscious and posing many more questions than he answered.

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

and for part of the second season Lynch was also off making his Elvis- and Oz-inflected road movie "Wild at Heart"

why does everybody get this wrong? he was editing wild at heart while simultaneously editing season one episodes of tp. i don't see how he could have continued working on a movie that was finished months before. just take a look at the release dates on imdb, la times, ya fuckin' whackadoos. where the hell are your fact checkers?

more like where the hell is my fucking life. i'm the biggest fucking nerd, i should just off myself. i'm sorry to my family and friends, i never meant to let you down. i swear it wasn't your fault, i was just too pathetic to live. really. i also want to say sorry to mod's dad. maybe i'll learn to make peace with fright night in the afterlife. goodbye xixax. goodbye world.

The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil’s rain we’ll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, ’cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, ’cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put ’em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put ’em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

that review made me mad that i traded in my season one and two dvds...i had no idea that season one was out of print...to the peoples who bought the new box set at retail stores, was there alot on the shelves..i plan to get the gold box by the weekend....

by the way that gold box is ugly...gold is tacky to me..i dont like gold teeth, gold watches, gold guido-like chains...the only gold i like is the one found in pirate treausure chests....silver looks better...

that review made me mad that i traded in my season one and two dvds...i had no idea that season one was out of print...to the peoples who bought the new box set at retail stores, was there alot on the shelves..i plan to get the gold box by the weekend....

by the way that gold box is ugly...gold is tacky to me..i dont like gold teeth, gold watches, gold guido-like chains...the only gold i like is the one found in pirate treausure chests....silver looks better...

What this means is if you're a true Twin Peaks completist -- and this is the kind of show that has plenty of fans of that type -- you'll need to have both the Season 2 and Gold Box sets to get all of the interviews produced by Paramount, which is completely unnecessary considering they put both sets out within a few months of one another. Many fans knew a series set was likely coming soon and held off getting the Season 2 set for that reason. This seems like a calculated move to try to get a select portion of those fans to perhaps now reconsider and go back and buy the Season 2 set. It's hardly an uncommon move these days with DVDs, but never seems like fair play.

The following interview was conducted over several days with DVD Producer Charles de Lauzirika.

Dugpa: How did you come to be a Twin Peaks fan?

Charles de Lauzirika: I had been a fan of David Lynch's work ever since I was 13 and saw "The Elephant Man" in theaters. It really floored me. It might have been the first time I ever cried during a movie. But it was so beautifully made, I followed David's career after that and was always inspired by his work. So years later, when I heard he was going to do a TV show called "Twin Peaks," I wondered, "How is he possibly going to adapt his style to television?," not realizing, of course, that he was going to force television to adapt to him. I managed to get tickets to the first public screening of the Pilot, at the L.A. County Museum of Art on Wilshire Blvd., which I remember being a few months before it aired on ABC. It was really like being at the flashpoint of a major pop culture phenomenon. I just remember the audience responding loudly to everything. There were huge laughs over every little quirky detail, like the ceiling fan, or the dropped phone with Sarah Palmer wailing on the other end, or Jim misunderstanding Cooper in the morgue. But it was also so dark and disturbing, I think people were really blown away by how emotionally extreme the Pilot was. It really wasn't like anything that had been seen on TV at that point.

I had been writing for my college newspaper around that time, and I started becoming obsessed with "Twin Peaks," publishing far more articles and updates on the show than many normal people would have. But being an accredited college journalist, I got invited to cover the Tree People benefit that took place at Union Station in the summer between Season One and Season Two. I got to interview a huge chunk of the cast, including Jack Nance, which was a very special opportunity for me as a fan. He was so kind and funny to me, and I used to live fairly close to him in Pasadena, so I'll always remember that evening. I also grilled Ray Wise about possibly being Laura's killer because the Laura Palmer Diary had recently come out and I felt it pretty much gave it away. But he wouldn't budge. It was great getting to interview him again for the new DVD and hearing how he personally heard the news about who Laura's killer was. It brought the whole story full circle for me.

It was a pretty exciting time back then to be a "Twin Peaks" fan. I mean, people forget just how insane Peaksmania was at its height. It was probably the last time I was truly obsessed over a TV show...although the new "Battlestar Galactica" comes close.

Dugpa: How did you get involved with the Twin Peaks Gold Box DVD?

Charles de Lauzirika: I had been monitoring the DVD rights situation with the show over the years, as it went from studio to studio, eventually ending up at CBS DVD. I had a nice relationship with CBS having worked with them on NUMB3RS, and thanks to Trisha Gum, who convinced Ken Ross that I was the right guy for the job, I wrote a proposal that was accepted and we were off and running.

Dugpa: What was your original proposal for the box set?

Charles de Lauzirika: My original proposal, written back in mid-2006, was titled Twin Peaks: The Dream Collection. I figured that was a good title since this set was designed to be a dream come true for fans, but also because so much of Twin Peaks, and David Lynch's work in general, is rooted in a dark, mysterious and beautiful dream logic. This proposal also included "Fire Walk With Me," which is distributed here by New Line. The FWWM portion of the proposal included a new making-of documentary I was going to make called "Questions in a World of Blue" along with all of those long-sought-after deleted scenes. I had some preliminary discussions with CBS and New Line about teaming up for the perfect box set, but ultimately, it ended up being too legally complicated to make happen. But it was nice to fantasize about.

As for the series portion of the proposal, it was pretty close to what we ended up with. Deleted scenes were always part of the proposal. The various featurettes were always part of it. The SNL skit, the Georgia Coffee commercials, the TV spots, and so on. The only things originally in my proposal that we ended up dropping were audio commentaries and story notes, similar to what was seen on the Season 1 release from Artisan. Basically, David didn't want anything that interfered with the presentation of the episodes, and if you read his chapter on audio commentaries in his book, Catching the Big Fish, you know that he believes commentaries can demystify the art too much, and make the experience less special. And I agree, that in the wrong hands, you can cheapen the magic of storytelling and filmmaking, which is certainly never my intention. I also figured that we had so many other things planned for the box set, we could explore the making of the show in other more interesting ways.

Dugpa: What can you tell us about the extras on the box set?

Charles de Lauzirika: It's a pretty healthy combination of all-new material and great vintage pieces. Although we had inherited quite a large selection of interviews that had been used in the Season 2 set, I felt it was important to not only conduct new interviews with some of those people, but also to branch out and interview people who hadn't been interviewed for the last two DVD sets, or at all. Even though we didn't get everybody we wanted, we did get most of them, along with a lot of previously-unsung crew members. As for the cast, Amy Lowe, my associate producer on this, actually made contact with Michael Ontkean in Hawaii, and began a long series of interesting conversations with him about participating, but ultimately, he politely opted out, despite initially wanting to shoot his own interview for the documentary, which would have been wild. We came close to getting Lara Flynn Boyle, but there were scheduling issues. Same with Heather Graham and others. Believe me, we tried to get more than we did, but I'm more than pleased with the interviews we did get. I was especially happy that we got Joan Chen, Piper Laurie and Ray Wise, in addition to Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee and the rest. Not to mention Mark Frost, whose entire interview is just superb from beginning to end. He's pretty much the narrative spine of the documentary.

Dugpa: Why didn't David Lynch appear in the "Secrets from Another Place" documentary?

Charles de Lauzirika: It would have been great to have him as a voice to bounce off of Mark Frost, but I think David felt that his insights and stories in "A Slice of Lynch" were the best way to present his own particular point of view. Plus, it allowed me to get a little more creative in how I shot David's interview, and that was very refreshing.

Dugpa: What can you tell us about the Deleted Scenes that appear on the box set?

Charles de Lauzirika: The guys you should really talk to about that are Ryan Adams and David Grant from CBS DVD, who worked directly with David Lynch in restoring the picture and sound for the series. But for my part of it, I had known there was a bootleg disc of deleted scenes, outtakes and circle takes floating around in the fan community. I acquired a copy from a fan who shall remain nameless, but someone who's very supportive and active in the Twin Peaks fan community. Unfortunately, this material had leaked out through inappropriate means, and as it turns out, the original elements that would have been needed to fully restore these and other deleted scenes had long been destroyed. So that was a very sad revelation. I keep hoping that somewhere out there, the original elements were somehow saved and still exist, but CBS checked their vaults and inventory and it just wasn't there. Believe me, we dearly wanted to include as many interesting deleted scenes as possible, including the alternate murder scene of Ben killing Maddy. So that left us with the bootleg disc that a few fans already had in their possession. Ryan and David at CBS thought they could clean it up a bit, which they did, and they presented all the scenes to David Lynch for approval. He then personally selected the four scenes that now appear on the DVD. I'm sure Ryan and David can give you a lot of detail about that process, in addition to all of the wonderful picture and sound restoration work they did on the series.

Dugpa: What was it like working with David Lynch on this project?

Charles de Lauzirika: It was pretty much everything I thought it would be. I had always gathered that he was one of those filmmakers who doesn't want to reveal too much of what's going on behind the curtain. And that's something that I deeply respect, even if it makes my job more difficult. I think everyone who worked on this DVD felt like they wanted to make David happy, and make this a good experience for him. And he was extremely generous with his time and participation. Seriously, as a longtime fan of his work, it was a blast...especially shooting "A Slice of Lynch" with him.

But perhaps one of the most frightening moments of my career was sitting in David's screening room to show him rough cuts of all of the DVD extras, starting with "A Slice of Lynch." He sat in the row directly behind me, and every second of silence felt like cold death at my back. But when the lights came up, he gave his comments with a smile, often telling us even more backstories that I wish we had a camera there for. I'm very happy he approved everything, and went so far in helping us put this disc together. There's no way we could have done this without him. And I wouldn't have wanted to.

And I'll always remember coming home and finding a very unexpected black box at the front doorstep to my house with David's logo printed on it in white. Inside was a selection of his Signature coffee brands, way before it had been released to the public. That was no doubt one of the coolest gifts I've ever received.

Dugpa: Was there ever any consideration to including the previously-released extras from Artisan's Season 1 set, or even the CBS DVD Season 2 set?

Charles de Lauzirika: Not really, no. I'm not a big fan of wasting precious disc space on materials that people have already paid for in the past. If you look at some of the other double-dipped DVD's I've produced, like Alien Quadrilogy or the multi-disc sets of "Gladiator," "Black Hawk Down" and "Kingdom of Heaven," I rarely carry things over from previous releases unless they somehow fit nicely into the overall package. Things like trailers and TV spots are easy because they're so short. But otherwise, I think it's lazy. I mean, look, if you're the kind of "Twin Peaks" fan who wants everything, then chances are, you already own Seasons 1 and 2, so why spend all of that limited disc space on material you already have? Why spend all that money for content you already own? Shelf space issues aside, I'll never understand why certain people actually want to do that.

Dugpa: What was the most challenging extra to obtain for the box set?

Charles de Lauzirika: Well, every extra had its own little challenge. For instance, the Saturday Night Live skits needed to be signed off on by every single SNL cast member to appear in it. And keep in mind, that included Mike Myers who appeared as The Man From Another Place. That included the estates of Chris Farley and Phil Hartman. That included Conan O'Brien, who appeared in the background as Deputy Andy. Pretty much the entire SNL cast appeared in just that one skit. But Trisha Gum and the CBS Legal team did an amazing job tracking everyone down. And that was just for one extra feature! That same clearance process applied to everything that appears in the Gold Box.

In terms of production logistics, "A Slice of Lynch" was like mounting a low budget indie film. We had a full crew, four HD cameras, make-up and wardrobe artists, extras, catering...the whole deal. We shot the whole thing in about two hours at the Bigfoot Lodge in the Los Feliz area near Griffith Park and Hollywood. We only had two hours because that was our window of opportunity to get David, Kyle, Madchen and John together all at the same time. And it was particularly intense for me because at the same time, I was working to get Joanna Cassidy on-board to shoot some additional green screen material for the Final Cut of "Blade Runner" the very next day! Fortunately, both shoots went off perfectly.

Dugpa: What is the significance of the whole Gold Theme to the box set?

Charles de Lauzirika: The whole gold motif came from David Lynch himself. I remember being up at his house with Ken Ross, David Grant and Ryan Adams from CBS, and David was obsessed with this thing being housed in a gold box. I remember him closing his eyes intently saying, "It's got to be gold..." I was never really sure what gold had to do with the show, but that wasn't the point. This was David's way of presenting this set as the definitive treasure for "Twin Peaks" fans.

Dugpa: What was the reason for leaving off the "Previously on Twin Peaks" segments and the "Next on Twin Peaks" segments from the box set?

Charles de Lauzirika: For whatever reason, those segments weren't in the studio inventory. As I mentioned earlier, all of these materials get passed from distributor to distributor over the years, things can get lost in the shuffle, unfortunately. Plus, there might have been additional licensing costs to consider even if we did have them. It's strange, I worked on two huge projects this year that both had very complicated ownership issues...this and "Blade Runner." It's not like the usual project where one studio owns and archives everything outright, making things far more clean and easy. For both "Twin Peaks" and "Blade Runner," there are multiple owners of various types of content, which can end up being a huge headache and possibly very costly when trying to clear this material for DVD. And all of it has to be cleared...there's no quick way to cheat around that.

Dugpa: What was the one thing you most wanted to include on this set but weren't able to so?

Charles de Lauzirika: Well, I still think it would have been great to include audio commentaries, but we managed to get a lot of detail and background out without them. And, of course, it would have been wonderful to include a huge gallery of fully remastered deleted scenes...but another thing to consider is the narrative quality of those deleted scenes. Every show and film has footage that doesn't make the final cut. Not all of it is particularly interesting. So when you're dealing with limited disc space, as you always are, you have to weigh what's most important to telling the story behind the story. I honestly don't have any major regrets about this set. I think it's a good balance of everything.

Dugpa: With all the nostalgia in the air, at any point, did David Lynch ever hint about the possibility of continuing "Twin Peaks?"

Charles de Lauzirika: Not to me. I know there's been a lot of talk on the internet about a Season 3 graphic novel, but I'm not privy to any inside information on that. And David himself has mentioned in interviews that if he were to continue it, it would probably be as internet content. To be honest, I don't care if it's done as doodles on cocktail napkins, I'd love to see the story continue in some form.

Dugpa: Was the idea of doing an isolated soundtrack with Badalamenti's music considered as an extra?

Charles de Lauzirika: I love isolated scores. Unfortunately, they have really become a rarity in DVD production, simply because of music rights issues. A lot of composers and rights holders feel like they're giving bootleggers all the materials they need to rip off their music. As far as "Twin Peaks" goes, I knew that David and Angelo were working on a new soundtrack release, so it was nice to hear that even if we weren't going to be able to include an isolated music track on the DVD, previously unreleased cues would be getting out there in the form of a new soundtrack.

Dugpa: For the original Season 2 DVD set, some fans were surprised with some of the alterations in both sound and video. Most notably the video in Episode 14 during the Maddy death scene and the audio in Episode 28 where Cooper spots Windom Earle. Were these changes done intentionally?

Charles de Lauzirika: That's a question for Ryan and David. I had nothing to do with the picture and sound mastering. But Ryan and David worked closely with David Lynch and got his approval on everything.

Dugpa: How did you approach working on the Twin Peaks set versus the upcoming Blade Runner set?

Charles de Lauzirika: It was a little daunting at times. Fortunately, the production windows of both projects rarely overlapped to any serious degree. And it helps having two really tireless associate producers to support me through these projects...Amy Lowe on "Twin Peaks" and Paul Prischman on "Blade Runner." I mean, we've juggled multiple big projects before, but I guess what made things especially challenging this time was that in addition to putting together the supplemental content for both titles, I was also producing the new Final Cut of "Blade Runner," which was a massive undertaking. So if my schedule ever got overloaded, I would have Amy conduct an interview for "Twin Peaks" while I was working on "Blade Runner," or I would have Paul handle something on "Blade Runner" while I was working on "Twin Peaks." It turned out to be less chaotic than I had originally imagined, but it was certainly very tough and I couldn't have done it without Amy and Paul.

Otherwise, I guess the biggest difference between the two projects was that I don't have the same kind of long history with David Lynch that I have with Ridley Scott. So for me there was that additional process of learning what parameters I could work in within David's world versus Ridley's world. But in both cases, the goal remains the same...present the material in the best and most interesting light you can. Obviously, there are occasionally technical challenges, or legal challenges or, creative control issues...but more and more, I'm just focusing on what's the most interesting story. And I was very fortunate in that both "Twin Peaks" and "Blade Runner" have fascinating stories behind their creation and legacy, and both have very interesting filmmakers behind them.

Dugpa: Did you feel that Lynch allowed you to achieve the vision that you were looking for on the documentaries?

Charles de Lauzirika: I have to admit, I thought David was going to be far more controlling over what I was going to be able to include in the documentaries. Again, he seems like a filmmaker who doesn't want to reveal too much about the process. So there were even some sections in the documentaries that I intentionally included thinking that he would probably kill them, but that would take the focus off other sections I wanted to survive. Well, as it turns out, he approved everything without any changes. On top of that, he wanted to make sure we included Sheryl Lee who, at that time, we hadn't been able to schedule yet. So he made the call, and within a couple days, Amy got Sheryl in front of the camera and we added her to the documentaries. So, if anything, he not only allowed us to include everything, he even made sure we added more.

Dugpa: Were you forced to cut out any footage that may have given away too much?

Charles de Lauzirika: Nope, not at all. There were some stories that some people didn't want to talk about on the record, things we were told about off-camera that would have added a little more drama and gossip to things, I guess, but they weren't important to telling the story behind the creation of the show.

Dugpa: Are there any plans on releasing the Gold Box set on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

Charles de Lauzirika: I haven't heard anything specific, but I know from Ryan and David that an HD release has been under discussion. I have no idea about when or how. But I look forward to it happening someday because we shot "A Slice of Lynch" in HD and it looks beautiful in hi-def. And, of course, it would be amazing to see the whole series all over again in HD.

Dugpa: What was your experience at the Twin Peaks Festival like?

Charles de Lauzirika: Well, to be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I've been going to big fan events like Comic-Con for years, I've gone to a couple Lebowski Fests, and I've been to some much smaller fan gatherings as well, which can end up being a little scary...especially if "Star Wars" is involved. I figured Twin Peaks Festival would land somewhere in the middle, but I wasn't exactly sure where!

Fortunately, I had a fantastic time there. Most everyone was so cool and welcoming to us, that we just kept shooting and shooting. Jordan, Kelly, Jared, Amanda and the team treated us like family, so it wasn't difficult to put a lot of love into the "Return to Twin Peaks" featurette. I really wanted to go this year and give everyone a sneak peek at the Gold Box, but unfortunately, the Fest was scheduled the same weekend as Comic-Con, which I was already committed to. And I would love to go back next year and not have to worry about shooting anything and just have fun, but it's on the same weekend as Comic-Con again! Oh well, one of these years...

Dugpa: Being a Twin Peaks fan from the start, what was your reaction to the final Episode of 29 when you first saw it?

Charles de Lauzirika: I had really mixed feelings about it. I mean, I felt the show was finally back in the right groove and that last episode was truly mindblowing. And as much as I hated seeing Cooper go to the darkside, I also loved it because it was exactly the kind of narrative twist that could reinvigorate the show. But of course, I think by this time, we all knew it was canceled. I think I was hoping that this heavy of a cliffhanger would force ABC to continue the series, or at least wrap it up with a TV movie finale. But "Crime Story" tried the same tactic over on NBC a few years earlier, and it didn't work at all. So it was bittersweet...great to see the show end on such a powerful note, but so sad to see it end.

Dugpa: What are your thoughts on Fire Walk With Me?

Charles de Lauzirika: I have to admit I have mixed feelings about that as well. Because I was interning in script development at the time, I was able to get a copy of the script before it even began to shoot. And I was very bad but I couldn't resist...I tore through the whole script, reading it as fast as I could. And I had the same feeling after reading the script that I had after seeing the movie. I was obviously very happy to see more "Twin Peaks" being made, but between the series itself and the Laura Palmer diary, I felt as though I had already seen the big events leading up to Laura's murder in my own imagination. I felt like this was such a rare opportunity to return to "Twin Peaks" that, as a viewer, I wanted to see what happened after the final episode, not what already came before. But on the flip side, the film itself is such a powerful, dizzying experience...it was amazing to see "Twin Peaks" unleashed like that, with no boundaries and no rules. It was pure Lynch. And both Ray Wise and Sheryl Lee gave such tremendous, heartbreaking performances. I just remember walking out of the theater in a total daze, which is usually a good thing.

Dugpa: I've been following your work ever since the Alien Quadrilogy DVD set. Do you have any plans to direct feature length films of your own?

Charles de Lauzirika: I'm working on a couple of projects right now. The first is a really dark, psychological street story that I'm hoping to direct in the spring of next year. It's about a guy living in a very disturbing fantasy world who meets this one-of-a-kind girl that turns that world upside down...and then it just gets more twisted from there. It will be a pretty lean and mean low budget indie. A good first feature to get my feet wet. In that regard, "INLAND EMPIRE" is a great inspirational example of how you can do so much with so little. And then there's another project I'm extremely excited about that will hopefully get going sometime soon after that. It's based on an existing property, so I can't talk about it yet, but it's a very important story to me on a personal level. And aside from that, I'm keeping the DVD company going so that we can all pay the rent in the meantime.

Dugpa: Since CBS DVD owns the rights to the Spelling library including the Lynch/Frost TV Series "On the Air" and the Lynch Series "Hotel Room", do you know if there are any plans for an eventual DVD release?

Charles de Lauzirika: Haven't heard a thing. It's a great idea though.

Dugpa: On behalf of the fans of Twin Peaks worldwide, your work is greatly appreciated for finally doing justice to Twin Peaks the TV Series. Based on your work for this title, I can't think of anyone more qualified to take on doing a Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me DVD. My question for you, or rather a challenge for you is would you be willing to champion a new Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Special Edition DVD and complete the work you started with the Twin Peaks Gold Box?

Charles de Lauzirika: Well, I would love to work on a "Fire Walk With Me" Special Edition. As I mentioned earlier, I had it all planned to be apart of a complete "Twin Peaks" box set. But even if I'm not involved, I just hope those deleted scenes are finally released. I know of at least a couple people on various message boards who won't find true happiness in life unless those damn things come out.

But thank you for the kind words. After all this time, it really means a lot to me and I'm glad the early word on the Gold Box has been so positive. Actually, I'm very relieved, because some of those message board comments were so hostile early on, before anyone really knew what we were up to, I sometimes wondered if it was all worth it. But it was. It was so very worth it. It's rare that any DVD producer gets to work on the discs for two groundbreaking classics like "Twin Peaks" and "Blade Runner" in their entire career, and it's just surreal to me that I got to work on them both at the same time, and to have them both turn out so well. I know it sounds cornball to say, but it really has been a dream come true.

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol